Free Republic

Make no mistake: The Rev. John B. Ardis, the Catholic priest whom Senator John F. Kerry has chosen to give the benediction at tonight's closing session of the convention, opposes abortion. But he also opposes capital punishment, the war in Iraq, and public policies he views as unjust toward the poor or hungry. Although several Catholic cardinals have declined to speak at Democratic conventions because of the party's support for abortion rights, Ardis, the director of the Paulist Center of Boston, will speak tonight without reservation, noting that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are fully in step with Catholic...

U.S. Embassy Bombings Suspect Arrested Thursday, July 29, 2004 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan has arrested a Tanzanian Al Qaeda (search) suspect wanted by the United States in the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said Friday. He said the suspect was cooperating and had given authorities "very valuable" information. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (search) — who is on the FBI's list of 22 most wanted terrorists, with a reward of up to $25 million on his head — was arrested Sunday in the eastern city of Gujrat along with at least 15 other people, Interior...

<p>A Northern California man wrongfully deported to Guatemala after seeking asylum in the United States is suing the government for damages, saying the mistake endangered his life.</p> <p>Victoriano Lorenso Jeronimo of Oakland filed suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco late Tuesday, seeking millions of dollars and assurances that federal immigration officials will work to prevent similar incidents.</p>

<p>BOSTON -- Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley brought his prescription for improving homeland security to the Democratic convention Wednesday night, but his short speech was rewarded with only modest applause outside the Maryland delegation and a snub from both broadcast and cable television networks. Many in the FleetCenter spent the duration of O'Malley's speech moving about the arena, their chatter building to a noisy rumble. Plus, an apparent microphone glitch meant the mayor's remarks barely drifted up to the nose-bleed seats filled with spillover crowds of delegates and guests from Maryland and the rest of the country.</p>

<p>If one were forced to choose low point of Jimmy Carter's presidency, it might be his July 15, 1979, "national malaise" speech. The country was suffering under inflation, recession, and an "energy crisis" — and we were about to undergo the national humiliation of the Iran hostage crisis. But what was Carter's diagnosis of America's problem?</p>

<p>A Beverly Hills doctor who is a former chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS has surrendered his license to practice medicine in California, effective this week.</p> <p>Dr. R. Scott Hitt, 45, returned his license to the Medical Board of California, which had suspended it for 60 days in February because of allegations that Hitt sexually molested two patients at his medical office. The board also had placed him on seven years' probation.</p>

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Egyptian government paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure the release of an Egyptian diplomat who had been kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents last week, sources in Baghdad told CNN Tuesday.</p> <p>Egyptian officials deny paying any ransom for Momdoh Kotb, the country's third-ranking diplomat in Iraq.</p>

<p>"Is our country more united today?" Al Gore asked. "Or more divided? Has the promise of compassionate conservatism been fulfilled? Or do those words now ring hollow? For that matter, are the economic policies really conservative at all? Did you expect, for example, the largest deficits in history? One after another? And the loss of more than a million jobs?"</p>

<p>BOSTON — John Kerry's "band of brothers" said Monday that getting the Massachusetts senator elected president is their final mission — one they would go to hell and back for if necessary.</p> <p>"If John Kerry (search) came up to us and said we had one more swift boat mission and we were going to hell, he would have a full crew," said David Alston, a crewmate of Kerry, who commanded a Navy river swift boat in the Vietnam War and earned the Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his service in 1968-1969.</p>

<p>OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- A recent Sunday found Tina Kolm changing her morning routine. Instead of attending a Unitarian Universalist service, she was at the Lenexa Christian Center, paying close attention to a conservative minister's sermon about the importance of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex "marriage."</p>

<p>MIAMI (AP) - Ricky Williams has told the Miami Dolphins that he's retiring after just five years in the NFL, The Miami Herald reported on its Web site Sunday.</p> <p>Williams said he was overjoyed by his decision.</p> <p>"You can't understand how free I feel," Williams told the Herald in a cell phone interview Saturday before boarding a plane in Hawaii and heading to Asia to begin several months of travel.</p>

<p>The closet poet with ambitions beyond the military died serving his country. His family and friends are left to deal with anger, sorrow and uncertainty.</p> <p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Paulette Crawford-Webb felt giddy when her daughter called her at work to say two military men were at the door. Her son, Army Staff Sgt. Morgan Kennon, was due home soon from Iraq for her 47th birthday. The "military men" had to be Morgan; her son and daughter were pulling a prank.</p>

<p>Michael O'Connor Clarke, a British subject who lives in Canada, will be voting for John Kerry in the presidential election in November. So will Sarah Redman, an Australian citizen and half of a lesbian couple looking to move to the United States but unable to under current immigration laws. And so will Scott Steahl, a sophomore at the University of California at San Diego. Steahl became eligible to vote two years ago, and by the grace of vote-exchanging, he'll do so twice in the fall.</p>

<p>Hey all you girlie men, it's time to rally around the free speech rights of the governor of California.</p> <p>Doesn't this one just make you laugh so hard it hurts?</p> <p>Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) was caricatured on "Saturday Night Live" some 20 years ago by "Hans" and "Franz," whose slogan was "We want to pump you up."</p>

<p>FOURTEEN months on from the fall of Baghdad allows for some per spective on the invasion. John Kee gan's "The Iraq War" and Evan Wright's "Generation Kill" make interesting bookends for seeing the assault in different lights — from the lofty heights of trenchant political-military analysis down to the raw emotion of force recon Marines in battle.</p>

<p>Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party, but that doesn't necessarily include all good women. You could ask Hillary Clinton.</p> <p>Better yet, you could ask the mister. Whether you should necessarily believe him is a topic for another day. He's not under oath, after all.</p>

<p>New Jersey fund-raiser charged Prosecutors say developer tried to block federal probe NEW YORK (CNN) -- Real estate developer and political fund-raiser Charles Kushner of Livingston, New Jersey, was charged by federal prosecutors Tuesday with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and interstate promotion of prostitution. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie for New Jersey. In February 2003, Christie's office began investigating Kushner for alleged violation of federal tax and fraud statutes and for purported violation of federal campaign contribution laws. According to the indictment, two of the cooperating witnesses in the investigation -- a married couple described as close relatives of Kushner -- provided information against him to federal investigators.</p>

<p>The strange disappearance of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, reportedly kidnapped in Iraq nearly three weeks ago, grows even more mysterious.</p> <p>Senior Pentagon officials tell NBC News, a man claiming to be Hassoun, called his family in Lebanon and the U.S. embassy in Beirut, saying he was — "released by his kidnappers somewhere in Lebanon" and that he was "waiting to be picked up."</p>

<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The Portland Archdiocese said Tuesday that it will file for bankruptcy, becoming the first Roman Catholic diocese in the nation to seek bankruptcy court relief in the face of accusations of sexual abuse.</p> <p>The Chapter 11 bankruptcy action, planned for Tuesday afternoon, puts an immediate halt to a priest abuse case scheduled to begin in Portland on Tuesday. It involves the Rev. Maurice Grammond, who was accused of molesting more than 50 boys in the 1980s.</p>

<p>MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Several hundred animal rights activists -- some in their underwear, others topless -- marched through the streets of Pamplona Monday to condemn bullfighting on the eve of the Spanish city's wildly popular running of the bulls.</p>